1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Internet traffic and, more specifically, to a system and method for monitoring and analyzing Internet traffic.
2. Description of Related Art
Internet web servers such as those used by Internet Service Providers (ISP), are typically configured to keep a log of server usage by the on-line community. For example, as a visitor to a website clicks on various hyperlinks and travels through a website, each step is recorded by the web server in a log. Each web page, image and multimedia file viewed by the visitor, as well as each form submitted, may be recorded in the log.
The type of information logged generally includes the Internet Protocol (IP) address or host name of the visitor, the time of the transaction, the request, the referring page, the web browser and type of platform used by the visitor, and how much data was transferred. When properly analyzed, this information can help marketing executives, webmasters, system administrators, business owners, or others make critical marketing, business, commerce and technical decisions. The data can be mined for all types of decision supporting information, e.g. analyzing which webbrowsers people are using, determining which banner ads are producing the most traffic, etc.
A problem with mining the raw log data for useful information is the shear volume of data that is logged each day. ISPs may have dozens of web servers containing thousands of websites that produce gigabytes of data each day. Providing a robust system that can be used on various platforms, that can efficiently process the huge amounts of data that are logged, and that can produce easy to use reports for each website in an automated fashion is a daunting task.
In view of the above problems in the art, the present invention provides a system and method for monitoring and analyzing Internet traffic that is efficient, completely automated, and fast enough to handle the busiest websites on the Internet, processing data many times faster than existing systems.
The system and method of the present invention processes data by reading log files produced by web servers, or by interfacing with the web server in real time, processing the data as it occurs. The system and method of the present invention can be applied to one website or thousands of websites, whether they reside on one server or multiple servers. The multi-site and sub-reporting capabilities of the system and method of the present invention makes it applicable to servers containing thousands of websites and entire on-line communities.
The system and method of the present invention can create reports for individual websites, as well as reports for all of the websites residing on a single server or multiple server. The system can also create reports from a centralized system, in which reports are delivered upon request directly from the system database via a Common Gateway Interface (CGI).
The system and method of the present invention can also include real-time analysis and reporting functionality in which data from web servers is processed as it occurs. The system and method of the present invention can produce animated reports showing current activity on the web server, which can be used by administrators and managers to monitor website effectiveness and performance.
The system and method of the present invention can further include e-commerce analysis and reporting functionality in which data from standard traffic logs is received and merged with data from e-commerce systems. The system and method of the present invention can produce reports showing detailed xe2x80x9creturn on investmentxe2x80x9d information, including identifying which banner ads, referrals, domains, etc. are producing specific dollars.
The present invention can be achieved in whole or in part by a system for analyzing and monitoring internet traffic, comprising a relational database, a log engine that processes log files received from at least one internet server and stores data processed from the log files in the relational database; and a report engine that generates reports based on the processed data stored in the relational database. The system and method of the present invention preferably utilizes Visitor Centric Data Modeling, which keeps data associated with the visitor that generated it, and that allows for the cross-comparing of different elements of data coming from different log entries or different log files altogether.